But anyway, in conjunction with the launch of the final book, MPH had organized a Harry Potter
pre-launch party, in which they invited us Mad Scientists to go there are perform a magic-related show. They had also wanted us to perform some demonstrations on the day of the laucnh itself, but due to the whole hoohah with the hypermarkets making them boycott the selling of the book, they cancelled that. But they couldn't cancel the party, so I and three of my colleagues went there. All of us except one were decked out in witch and wizard's costumes, which were mainly just our Mad Science lab coat with a 'cloak' (read: big piece of cloth) of our favourite colour, a witch hat (I made them myself out of hard board) and a wand (a super-size japanese chopstick, decorated personally by each of us). So, I being the lover of the colour red but not looking like an apple, decided to go for the maroon cloak and also painted my 'wand' that colour. I had also glued on a long piece of yarn that wound around it like a vine, so it looked cooler. My male colleague, Jay, went for the blue cloak and actually took the trouble to stick a golden eagle statuette at the bottom so it looked pretty cool. And another colleague, Swee Khem, who likes pink, decided to go for the Professor Umbridge look and really decked herself out in pink (an outfit I wouldn't have been caught dead in). So thus is our motley Mad Science Magic crew!
As for the fourth colleague, he came dressed like normal, so they slapped on him and every other normally dressed visitor a sign that red "Muggle", which in the Harry Potter world means non-magical folk:
And though most of the other people there were dressed like 'normal' witches and wizards, there were a few who took the extra step by dressing up as specific characters in the book, such as this fella below who dressed as Mad Eye Moody, who first appeared in book four. Don't ask me if it's a guy or a girl, coz' I'm not too sure myself....
Next, I performed possibly one of the most fun Mad Science shows I've ever done, as I had to customize everything specifically to the Harry Potter theme. It was a half an hour show, and I introduced myself as the long lost niece of Professor McGonagall (one of Harry Potter's teachers) who is a teacher at a not-famous school of magic, called the Mad Science School of Magic! And I was about to teach them some of our magical Mad Science secret, haha! I did stuff like making my "magical pet", a real live rat appear in an 'empty' pan (it was actually one of my black gerbils, Coffee!) which the audience really enjoyed. Then I showed them how to make a Rainbow Potion that can change colour from green to orange to dark blue. Then I got two kids to help me making some slime that can change colour as well. And for my grand finale, I did a super cool trick with a water cooler container where I poured in some methanol shook it up well so it evaporated, poured out the excess and lit the top of the container with my wand (I actually stuck a match on it and lit it with a lighter while yelling out a so-called lighting spell, which was pretty funny!), so a blue flame would shoot out of the container and make a loud whooshing noise that scared the pants off everyone! I called that my Dragon Breath spell, hehe! And to end it off, I pretended to want to continue my show but my assistant sent me a letter from the Mad Science School of Magic saying I had performed magic illegally in front of Muggles (at which, I looked around and yelled out when I saw a 'Muggle' in the audience) and I was to stop immediately or else I would lose my job. Of course, it was just all pre-planned to make the end of my show more interesting. And all in all, I think everyone did enjoy the show and so did I. Anyways, here are the pics:
This is me doing the colour changing slime with some kids from the audience.
And me doing the Dragon's Breath thingy. Too bad we couldn't catch the fire coming out coz' it only lasts like one second.
So after my show finished, there was a best dressed witch and wizard competition, and though they didn't think I was good enough to be a finalist (Hrmmph!) they chose my colleague Jay as a finalist. Funnily enough, his competitor for Best Dressed Wizard was only one other guy, and the other guy won. Heh. And the reason they chose my colleague was because of his wand, which actually does look pretty cool. But I still like mine better. :P
Anyways, my other colleagues who were supposed to do the other demos which were cancelled also had their Harry Potter fun in the office, as shown below by my colleagues Sharmila and Paul.
Paul even dressed up in Swee Khem's pink cloak and wore the blond wig so he looked like an Ah Kua witch, and the picture is so disturbing I think it's best not to show it here. But anyway, I will most likely post up more of the Harry Potter pics on my photo site, http://naeemng.dotphoto.com. Whenever I feel like getting round to it that is. Now if only I could magically make my car repair itself and the other guy's car too... *Sigh*....
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